Crimson Death

“It should, but there shouldn’t be a case involving vampires there either,” Pierette said.

“Why couldn’t M’Lady have gone crazy and attacked people?” Sin asked.

“She is too controlled and far too old to risk everything for such indulgence.”

“What would cause new vampires to rise in one of the cities there?”

“Nothing,” she said, and seemed very certain.

“I need your word that you won’t share anything I am about to tell you with anyone, Pierette,” I said.

“I cannot keep any secrets from my master, for when he wakes he will know everything that I have experienced while he slept.”

“Okay, then I need your word and his that this goes no further.”

“You have my word, and my word is his, as is his to me.”

I was a little puzzled by her sentence, but I accepted it. “I have your word of honor?”

“You have it.”

One of the good things about the older vampires was that their word of honor really was good, because they still believed it really was their honor at stake, and that meant something to them. I told her as little as possible, but enough to let her know there were new vampires rising in Dublin nearly every night.

“That should not be possible,” she said, and she looked perplexed as if she was thinking very hard.

“But it is what appears to be happening.”

“If she did not create them, then that would be more true, but even vampires not of her making should be subject to her power.”

“Is she lying?” Sin asked.

Pierette glanced at him and then down. “I do not know, but if she is not lying, then something has gone very wrong.”

“What could that be?” I asked.

“When you slew the Mother of All Darkness, there were vampires that went to sleep at dawn that never woke that night. She was their power source and once that was gone they could not rise from the dead again. I would have thought M’Lady as her own bloodline would have been safe from any diminishment of power, but it is one possibility.”

“We didn’t have anyone that didn’t rise here in St. Louis,” I said.

“You and Jean-Claude are here. It is your seat of power and all the vampires blood-oathed to him would have gained in power from you eating the Dark Mother, but power comes from somewhere, Anita. You took it from the Mother of All Darkness and gave it to your vampires, your animal allies, but it cost others dearly to be disconnected from their power source.”

“Why didn’t they just keep going with Jean-Claude and Anita as their power source?” Sin asked.

“I do not know, but I have never seen a master vampire that was their own bloodline slain without costing the lives of some of their vampires, even when a new master has taken over the territory. The move from one source of life to another is never as neat and clean as modern vampires believe.”

“Older master vamps still tell their little vampires that if the master dies, they won’t wake up the next night, but I’ve proved that’s not true.”

“For a simple master vampire it is not, but Masters of the City can take some of their lesser vamps with them to the grave, and a sourdre de sang can take many of their creations down to death with them. When you slew the Lover of Death for well and good last year, many of his children died with him.”

“I didn’t know that,” I said.

“Would you have cared if you had known?”

“Maybe, but we’re not talking about vampires dying and not rising from their coffins. We’re talking about more new little vampires rising,” I said.

“The magic of the land itself should prevent such a plague of vampires in Ireland.”

“According to the police there are more attacks every night,” I said.

Pierette frowned and looked at the floor again, which apparently was what she did when she was thinking hard. “Are there any attacks outside the city?” she asked at last.

“Not that’s been mentioned to me.”

“If it’s only happening in the city and not the countryside, then it could be that the wild fairy magic itself is beginning to wane. It’s happened nearly everywhere else in the world, and it would start in the city if that was the reason. The countryside without all of mankind’s technology and metal would retain its magic longer.”

“How would they check to see if that’s what’s happening?” I asked.

“Ask the little people—they’re still there and they deal with the humans. Ask the Fairy Doctors—they’ll know.”

“Literally fairy doctors?” I asked.

She gave a small smile. “No, they are humans who either gain their magic through the gentle folk, or are beloved by the Fey in some way. The Irish call them Fairy Doctors because in past times they would cure ill livestock or people like a doctor, but they did it through fairy magic, not medical science.”

“Are they still allowed to use magic to cure people?” Nathaniel asked.

Pierette didn’t seem to hear him.

“I’d think modern medicine would have done away with them,” I said.

“They are not allowed to act as doctors, but they are still valued as a type of psychic ability,” she said.

“Can they cure things that modern medicine can’t?” Nathaniel asked.

Again, Pierette ignored him.

“Nathaniel asked you a question,” I said.